Science Fiction Reading in February 2017

[Reyter]

Mediocre books, albums and films win awards more often than not. Awards and all-time-greatest lists mean little to nothing.

Hmmmm That's a good point.

 

[Contrarius]

I don't buy it. That anyone so ignorant and backward could be in a position to influence a major literary award.

LOL. Ignorant and backward people manage to make it into positions of power all the time.

It is absolutely not Hugo Award material even if I didn't finish it.

Which is, of course, only your personal opinion.

I didn't put it at the top of my Hugo ballot, and I didn't rate it at 5 stars, but it's a very good book. And many other people liked it even more than I did. Go read a few of the reviews from the 8863 5-starred ratings over at GR.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Sure, people liked what they read and voted accordingly. No reason to assume otherwise.

 

[Reyter]

LOL. Ignorant and backward people manage to make it into positions of power all the time.


Which is, of course, only your personal opinion.

I didn't put it at the top of my Hugo ballot, and I didn't rate it at 5 stars, but it's a very good book. And many other people liked it even more than I did. Go read a few of the reviews from the 8863 5-starred ratings over at GR.

Of course my opinion but as for the ratings, I know on Amazon "Death Becomes Her (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 1)" is rated much higher than books such as "Seveneves" and even higher than "Enders Game". Not making any judgement on you. You come across as a well educated and intelligence person but I think a lot of people who rated "The Fifth Season" highly also rated "Death Becomes Her" highly. Though of course from the 1/3 of "The Fifth Season" I read, I'm sure it's far better than "Death Becomes Her (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 1)". But not even close to the book I just finished (The 5th Wave) which didn't win any awards.

 

[Reyter]

LOL. Ignorant and backward people manage to make it into positions of power all the time.

What qualifications do the judges for the Hugo Award have? I remember some Russian mathematician won an award for solving a math puzzle. He said basically "I will take the prize money but no thanks to the award." Asked why he said; "Who the f**k are they (a bunch of American and Western European capitalists) to bestow an award on me?" If the only qualifications for the judges are that they are rich, I agree, it may not be a set up. If they are authors themselves who have themselves written critically acclaimed books, I think it was a set-up.

 

[Contrarius]

Of course my opinion but as for the ratings, I know on Amazon "Death Becomes Her (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 1)" is rated much higher than books such as "Seveneves" and even higher than "Enders Game".

Sure. High ratings are no guarantee of quality. However, the fact remains that many people DID rate this book highly. And since a supposed lack of general popularity in Hugo winners was one of the main complaints of the Rabid Puppy group (the group led by Vox Day, whom I mentioned earlier), that rather knocks their complaints about the Hugo awards for a loop.

eta -- Also, don't ever pay attention to Amazon ratings. They are filled with fake and/or purchased votes. GR ratings are also not 100% reliable, but IMHO they are much more so than Amazon. And finally, Death Becomes Her only got 666 5-star ratings on GR, as opposed to the 8800 earned by The Fifth Season.

What qualifications do the judges for the Hugo Award have?

There are no "judges" for the Hugos. Anyone who purchases a Worldcon membership (either attending or associate membership) gets to vote.

 

[Reyter]

eta -- Also, don't ever pay attention to Amazon ratings. They are filled with fake and/or purchased votes. GR ratings are also not 100% reliable, but IMHO they are much more so than Amazon. And finally, Death Becomes Her only got 666 5-star ratings on GR, as opposed to the 8800 earned by The Fifth Season. .

What is "GR"? Good Reads? A lot of nonsense on that site. Plus one can sign up with temp emails and join and offer a rating as much as they like.

There are no "judges" for the Hugos. Anyone who purchases a Worldcon membership (either attending or associate membership) gets to vote..

Well who counts the votes?

 

[Contrarius]

What is "GR"? Good Reads? A lot of nonsense on that site. Plus one can sign up with temp emails and join and offer a rating as much as they like.

Absolutely -- as I said before, GR (yes, Goodreads) is not 100% reliable either. But it's easy to weed out the fake reviewers if you care to, because you can look at each user to see when they joined and what other books they've reviewed.

Well who counts the votes?

You can find all the info you want here: http://www.thehugoawards.org .

eta -- here's the specific answer for your question, from the Hugo site:
"
Who runs the ballot?


Each Worldcon is responsible for administering and counting votes for the year in which it takes place. The Worldcon committee will appoint one or more people as Hugo Administrators. It is their job to see that the process takes place efficiently and fairly. If you have any questions about the Hugos your first port of call should be to ask that year’s Hugo Administrator."

So a different administrator counts the votes each year. Also, the vote totals are made public in quite a bit of detail after they're counted.

 

[Reyter]

Absolutely -- as I said before, GR (yes, Goodreads) is not 100% reliable either. But it's easy to weed out the fake reviewers if you care to, because you can look at each user to see when they joined and what other books they've reviewed.


You can find all the info you want here: http://www.thehugoawards.org .

Not 100% reliable is quite an understatement. No word on who counts the votes. Figures. And if it were the democratic process it claims to be the so-called "Rabid Puppy" would be wasting its time trying to prevent that author or that book winning. No, something seems rotten to me but anyway, no use arguing about. I read 1/3 of the book and didn't like it at all but I have never really liked fantasy books.

 

[Windshadow]

Absolutely -- as I said before, GR (yes, Goodreads) is not 100% reliable either. But it's easy to weed out the fake reviewers if you care to, because you can look at each user to see when they joined and what other books they've reviewed.

I tend to go by the verified purchase reviews on Amazon to cut down on the fake reviews a bit (and I also read a few of the 3 star reviews and under for balance) but I agree the voting systems anywhere on the internet are suspect... one of the reasons I came here for reviews

 

[Contrarius]

No word on who counts the votes. Figures.

I already told you who counts the votes -- the administrator elected by the Worldcon committee for each year.

And if it were the democratic process it claims to be the so-called "Rabid Puppy" would be wasting its time trying to prevent that author or that book winning.

Nonsense.

Please read up on the Sad Puppy/Rabid Puppy controversy of the last few years. Google is your friend. Right now, you're just showing your ignorance of the issue.

 

[Contrarius]

I tend to go by the verified purchase reviews on Amazon to cut down on the fake reviews a bit

That helps. But especially with the cheap and free books, "verified purchase" reviews can be just as fake as the others.

I've pretty much given up on Amazon so far as reviews goes. And I'm with you in that I tend to believe 3-star ratings more than 5-star ones.

 

[Av Demeisen]

I have had so many good suggestions for SF since joining, I'm currently not short on reading material. Otherwise, I'd give NK Jemisin's latest trilogy a try, even though I'm not a fantasy reader.

 

[Contrarius]

I have had so many good suggestions for SF since joining, I'm currently not short on reading material. Otherwise, I'd give NK Jemisin's latest trilogy a try, even though I'm not a fantasy reader.

I bounced right off her first well-known book, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. But I think these current books are very good. Not perfect -- in particular, IMHO the protagonists are way overpowered, for one thing -- but good. Very imaginative, moving emotionally, and great worldbuilding.

As for these being "fantasy" -- they have quite an sfnal foundation. Their categorization as fantasy just depends on how much you're willing to believe about the scientific basis of the geomancy.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Is it true that the characters in her first trilogy are a bit immature/YA? That critique put me off buying The Inheritance Trilogy omnibus instead.

 

[Contrarius]

Is it true that the characters in her first trilogy are a bit immature/YA? That critique put me off buying The Inheritance Trilogy omnibus instead.

I don't even know, over all. I dnf'ed the first book pretty quickly. It just didn't appeal to me. But it certainly isn't true of the Inheritance books.

I think a lot of people are put off The Fifth Season because of its unusual narrative structure -- it has three alternating narratives, one of them in present tense and second person. And they get more unusual when you realize what they are (which I won't spoil -- many reviews do, though)*. If you ever listen to audiobooks, I highly recommend these in audio format -- the narrator is outstanding.

*eta -- You don't even find out why the second-person narrative is in second person until the second book.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Thank you for the spoiler alert. I will refrain from reading more reviews of The Fifth Season trilogy.

 

[Reyter]

I already told you who counts the votes -- the administrator elected by the Worldcon committee for each year.

Got it. Votes are tallied from various places and sent to an administrator who is also elected but we don't know who counts those votes. Riiiiight. I can trust that process.

Please read up on the Sad Puppy/Rabid Puppy controversy of the last few years. Google is your friend. Right now, you're just showing your ignorance of the issue.

I don't bother myself with literary award politics but according to your previous information and the link you sent, the only criteria one needs to vote is to pay their membership dues. And this group tried to lobby against this author? Who and how did they lobby? I can only guess it was a set up basically forcing the administrator to say that book gained the most votes based on the identity of the author or the group you are talking about lobbied against it because they knew political correctness had already dictated she win it.

Of course it's possible people really liked the book. I'm not the best judge because I don't like fantasy books but I read a third and from that third, I got the impression it wasn't a whole lot better than Death Becomes Her.... Well okay, a lot better but I have read many books which were very hard to put down after 1/3, not hard to keep reading after 1/3. I would never have gotten past 1/3 of Death Becomes Her, and on first try didn't get past 1/5, if it weren't quite a bit shorter than The Fifth Season.

The 5th Wave loses it a bit in the second half of the story but is still far better. Just my opinion. I'm going to leave it at that.

 

[Contrarius]

Got it. Votes are tallied from various places and sent to an administrator who is also elected but we don't know who counts those votes. Riiiiight. I can trust that process.

What in the world are you talking about? Votes aren't "tallied from various places". There's a single secure online voting system that includes a unique login for each registered voter to prevent fraud. The votes are counted and analyzed by the administrator elected each year. If you want to know the guy's name for this year, then use the link I already provided and ask them who the administrator is this year. Last year's administrator was very helpful with people who asked questions, and I'm sure that this year's administrator would also be happy to answer any questions you might have. Much better than making up some wild conspiracy theory!

I don't bother myself with literary award politics but according to your previous information and the link you sent, the only criteria one needs to vote is to pay their membership dues. And this group tried to lobby against this author? Who and how did they lobby?

Again, Google is your friend. What the puppies did was to game the system by creating block votes -- every one of them (during their most active year they placed several hundred votes) agreed to nominate exactly the same slate of works (five works per category for every category). Since there are so many eligible works in most categories, a block vote could fairly easily overwhelm the nomination stage of voting, thereby freezing out any works that the pups didn't want to win the award. (That is, under the old nomination system a block vote could do that. The Hugos just instituted a new system to make block votes less significant.) Again, Google if you're interested in more details.

I can only guess it was a set up basically forcing the administrator to say that book gained the most votes based on the identity of the author or the group you are talking about lobbied against it because they knew political correctness had already dictated she win it.

Again, that's complete nonsense. Please stop making things up. You are welcome to your own opinions, but you are not welcome to make up "alternative facts".

I'm not the best judge because I don't like fantasy books

So why did you even bother starting the book in the first place?

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I've pretty much given up on Amazon so far as reviews goes. And I'm with you in that I tend to believe 3-star ratings more than 5-star ones.

May be of interest.